


Drumming Song

by estherlyon



Series: Prompts in a Galaxy far far away [11]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28390221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/estherlyon/pseuds/estherlyon
Summary: Jyn meets Cassian for the first time in a long time and likes what she sees.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso
Series: Prompts in a Galaxy far far away [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/909657
Comments: 11
Kudos: 54





	Drumming Song

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old prompt I filled before I stopped writing fic, but I wanted to drop it here to keep it safe in one place instead of flying about in tumblr. Don't know if it's presumptuous of me to consider it a belated Holidays gift... I might be doing this to other stuff I find in my archives. Title is from a Florence + the Machine song just because. Hope those that haven't read it yet enjoy it. :)

Later she would deem it absurd, but Jyn was at first only objectively aware that Cassian was an attractive man. So much so, that earlier in their acquaintance – over her shackled wrists and his crisp words – she had actually sneered at the thought. Pretty boy, she had called him, as she rifled through his things and “found” a blaster she was quick to tuck away for herself.

As someone who had spent most of her time hyperaware of herself, she had neatly dissected the unusual energy that made them first work side by side on Jedha and then later come clashing on the ship on Eadu, rain water, anger and thinly-veiled disgust dripping from each of them in turn. Yes, he had bowled her over afterwards on Yavin IV, earnest eyes and big speeches and all, and she found herself trapped in his orbit, her eyes sizing him up of their own volition as they were cleared to land on Scarif. And yes, later, in what felt like much later (but wasn’t, actually), gasping, broken and deadly on top of a comm tower, the word that the sight of him had elicited in her brain had been beautiful.

She jotted down all those feelings to adrenaline, to the havoc that was wrought on her nerves after finding and losing both her fathers in a matter of days, to thinking that she was going to die in Cassian’s arms.

None of those feelings accounted for what was thrumming through her veins now, almost inexplicably, in what the troops fondly called the “cantina”, a corner of the almost wholly evacuated Massassi Temple where those that were brave enough drank whatever was smuggled into base in the way of liquor.

Jyn had recovered quickly from her injuries. Her comrades, those that survived, weren’t so lucky. Cassian had been the least lucky of them all; he spent months on a medbay bed after undergoing surgery and bacta treatments so that torn muscle and broken bones healed, and what wasn’t originally part of his body found its home under his skin, all while the Death Star plans were recovered and the station itself was turned into fire in the sky. There had been nothing Jyn could do other than sit with him until it became unsustainable, until it couldn’t be excused anymore. Baze, Chirrut and Bodhi had found their place in the Alliance. She had to move along as well. And so, she found herself among the Pathfinders.

Oh, she kept in touch. During long trips and boring nights in distant outposts, she would take out an encrypted comlink and send messages out into the galaxy so she could reassure herself that he remembered her. She had to admit, though, that nothing in the vast expanse of the entire kriffing universe could have prepared her for seeing him for the first time in more than six months.

She knew that he wouldn’t be able to come meet her at the hangar. He had mentioned having a meeting at their ETA and she had to pretend to herself it hadn’t stung and that the reason she had cleaned up and run towards the nearest source of alcohol had nothing to do with that.

And then, there he was, hair a bit shorter in the back, but still long enough to cover his ears, wide but nonchalant eyes scanning the room in the entire opposite direction of where she was. He had apparently not bothered to shave in a while and Jyn couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to run her hand along his jawline. He walked past her - she was sitting with her new friends (what a peculiar notion) just by the door – and she got to watch and see how his fatigues fit him just as nicely as they had when they first met.

Except there was nothing objetive or dismissive about it at this moment.

“I wish you could see your face right now,” said one of her companions, the older of them.

Something warm spread across her cheeks, totally unrelated to the poor excuse for whisky they were having. She did, however, turn to the Twi’lek pilot, whose turquoise eyes were filled with mirth, and then instantly to Leia. The princess had a hand over her curved lips, her eyes just this side of glazed.

“Oy, spy boy!” Hera yelled over the noise.

Cassian didn’t turn immediately. His shoulders dropped just a bit and he turned around, pretending he hadn’t found what he was looking for. Only then did he zero in on their little corner and walked over.

“Captain Syndulla, Princess,” he acknowledged first and then, just a touch warmer, “Jyn.”

Jyn felt a pressure in her chest she had never quite felt before and stilled her trembling hands by counting her breaths like a good little girl raised by Saw Gerrera.

“Hi,” she said dumbly.

His lips curved just a tad, something danced in his eyes, like when she had said, “I know because it’s me” and she thought vaguely that this had to be what instantaneous combustion felt like.

“It’s- um, it’s been a while.”

He was stuttering. The cold, shrewd man she had met on that same base months before and who later had come back for her over and over again didn’t stutter. Jyn could practically feel Leia’s and Hera’s eyes bouncing from him to her and back to him again, so she stood up abruptly.

“Talk outside?”

He nodded and mercifully walked on ahead of her.

“Did he just smile?” Hera asked, her pretty chin down in faux disbelief.

Leia’s smile was something brilliant, “Go, Jyn.”

She forced out a smile of her own – Jyn wasn’t one to give them away freely – and chased after Cassian, heart hammering in her chest.


End file.
